Resumo

Introduction: Machaerium hirtum belongs to Fabaceae family and is popularly knows as “jacarandá-de-bico-de-pato”. Some popular uses are described to this plants as in the treatment of diarrhea, cough and cancer. Despite of the large use of natural products with therapeutic properties, the uncontrolled consumption may offer health risks as mutagenic activity. To evaluate this property in M. hirtum, Ames test was used, which is widely used to identify substances capable of producing genetic damage and give rise to gene mutations. Experimental part: The mutagenic activity of ethanol extracts of leaves (M.h.1) and stems (M.h.2) were analyzed by Ames test, by the preincubation methodology. This test employs strains of Salmonella typhimurium with different mutations in the histidine operon, being developed to detect mutations caused by frameshift or base pair substitutions in DNA. It was used TA100, TA98, TA97a and TA102 strains of S. typhimurium, in the absence and the presence of metabolic activation, in five different concentrations (M.h.1: 0.8, 2.0; 4.0; 6.0; 8.0 mg/plate and M.h.2: 1.0, 2.8; 5.5; 8.3; 11.0 mg/plate). Results/discussion: The mutagenic activity of the extracts was not observed in any of the concentrations tested and strains, both in the presence and absence of metabolic activation. The compounds present in these extracts were not able to induce gene mutations by the mechanism of base pair substitution or by frameshift. Conclusion: Although many compounds derived from plants have considerable pharmacological activities, some undesirable properties such as mutagenicity, may restrict their therapeutic use, however, it was not verified with the extracts of M. hirtum by Ames test. These results are very important given that these plants are used for treatment of chronic diseases. Financial support: FAPESP, CNPq